# Magic: The Gathering



## Cryssie (Nov 3, 2008)

So I've taken this up and now play (mainly booster drafts) at least once a week and I'm rated and it's awesome.

Apart from one shaky sort of game against my brother using pre-constructed theme decks, and then a run-through of the starter set tutorial game, my first real experience of Magic was a Shards of Alara sealed deck tournament, which was interesting - I imagine putting a tri-colour deck together under a time limit was not the easiest introduction I could have had to the game, but it was a lot of fun.

My first Tenth Edition booster draft resulted in my drafting an unexpectedly successful mono white deck, which caused two of my opponents to concede out of sheer exasperation at being unable to drop my life total in the face of endless soldier tokens blocking everything, and half the things I did boosting my life. Funfunfun. Beacon of Immortality ("Double target player's life total. Shuffle Beacon of Immortality into its owner's library"), you are overpowered and I love you. :D

I may just tweak this deck for constructed, and maybe make it White/Black for a little (much-needed) extra bite. I read an awesome idea that uses Beacon of Immortality for what will generally be an instant win, too - False Cure ("Until end of turn, whenever a player gains life, that player loses 2 life for each 1 life he or she gained") followed by Beacon of Immortality on your _opponent_. False Cure isn't Standard legal, but mwee for formats where it is.

SO. Who here plays Magic?


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## Kratos Aurion (Nov 3, 2008)

It's pretty popular at my brother's school with the older kids. He doesn't play *that* much, but my cousin does.

Me, I only play a little bit. The only deck I have other than the 9th Ed. starter set is a Saviors of Kamigawa preconstructed deck. Lucky for me, it's pretty evil out of the box. I imagine it wouldn't hold a candle to someone who knew what they were doing, but so far I've never lost with it. *shrug* I barely own any other cards.

I mean, I really enjoyed Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! while I played them, think TCGs are a lot of fun and would love to really get back into one, but other than the little kids at my brother's school there's no one to play with. There's no point in buying any new cards or keeping up with new sets if there's no one to play with. It really sucks because this neat little comic store near the local mall used to hold all sorts of TCG tournaments, but I wasn't interested in learning Magic when they were holding it, then they moved and then they went out of business.

I'd try the free/official online ones, but I generally don't like computer games. I'd rather be holding the actual cards than fiddling with keys and where things go on the monitor.

My point (sort of) being that it looks really cool and all but I have just about zero incentive to learn/play/improve. :/


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## Storm Earth and Fire (Nov 4, 2008)

I play. Well, not so much now. My last school was full of folks who played at various levels. The school I go to now has next to nobody playing, mostly because there are actually rules against playing anything that involves cards on campus.

I've played in a few tournaments in my life. My first was Ravnica's prerelease, sealed deck, I failed, for the most part. The only person I beat was a mother who brought her baby along. :P

Then I played booster draft at a local comics/games store. I'm not particularly good at booster draft either.

I'm not the best, but it's still damn fun. I was quite the deckbuilder, too, though never for competition, just for show.


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## Abwayax (Nov 4, 2008)

I bought a seventh edition starter set a long time ago and almost got really into it, then all my cards got destroyed in the washing machine.


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## Negrek (Nov 6, 2008)

I <3 Magic muchso. Unfortunately, I am a poor college student who was previously a poor high school student, so I haven't got any recent cards whatsoever. I simply don't have the finances to keep up with the game, unlike some of the people here at my school who buy a something like a booster box a week and have like six of all the rares and so on. 

There's a fairly large group that gets together at college every Friday, but I haven't really been going to play much because other people have been imposing on my time that day. One of my high school friends is trying to arrange a draft tournament for sometime over Christmas break, when I'll be back in town, so I'm hoping that'll work out. I've never done a draft tournament before, or indeed any kind of tournament save the little thing our library did once a couple of years ago, so it should be fun.


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## Leviathan (Nov 6, 2008)

Magic was what I turned to after getting bored with Yu-Gi-Oh but still liking TCG's, and I've gained a considerable collection since I started some number of years ago. Unfortunately, it's not particularly popular in the area where I live, and the first group of people I met who were into it enough to play against was in high school, and almost all of them have graduated by now, not to mention that they tore me apart in our games on a regular basis. 

Unfortunately, my luck with Magic is pretty much just as crappy as it was with other TCG's (except maybe Duelmasters), and I'm barely ever able to get any cards I need, so I eventually just resorted to buying singles from a comic shop up near my grandparents' house.

Nowadays, I don't spend a lot of time with my cards, and it's been ages since I last bought any booster packs, partly because I don't have any money to spare anymore and also because I don't find much appeal in the newer sets. MIRRODIN BLOCK FTW, MAN!!

So yeah, I like Magic, but right now I'm in a bit of a recession for interest.


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## Cryssie (Nov 6, 2008)

Booster drafts are great. :D I don't need to fiddle with putting a carefully-planned constructed deck together (mwee for colour-picking on a whim!) and nobody else gets to, so it feels a bit more spontaneous and skill-based (as opposed to I-spent-a-stupid-amount-buying-the-kickass-cards-in-this-deck-based) and doesn't require me to have an expensive card collection to stand a chance. I hope I will always have the money for a draft each week.

In other Magic-related news, me and my recently drafted mono white (plus a few more cards to make it up to 60) were put firmly in our place today by a fairly nasty Green/Black elf deck. I still have much to learn!


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## Storm Earth and Fire (Nov 7, 2008)

The fun of booster draft as opposed to sealed deck (which is rather fun, nonetheless) is the fact that you're competing with the other seven people in your pod during the card gathering part. If anything, I'd say I've lost more matches due to poor pick decisions than my actual skill level.


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## Negrek (Nov 7, 2008)

> If anything, I'd say I've lost more matches due to poor pick decisions than my actual skill level.


Well, in booster draft picking right _is_ a major part of your skill level. One that I'm probably going to fail at, too, especially since I'm not at all familiar with the set that we'll be drafting.


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## Storm Earth and Fire (Nov 7, 2008)

Sorry, meant, like, game skill level and/or overall knowledge of the metagame.

Do you know what set? I'm not exactly hip, but I can try to be. :P

And let me just say that opening a booster box is one of the most magical things I have ever experienced in my life.

My favorite blocks would probably be:
1. Onslaught
2. Invasion
3. Ravnica
4. Lorwyn
5. Kamigawa

The main thing that keeps me going now is all the background worlds, storylines, and overall fantasy flavor of the game. I love the art, the flavor text, and the novels aren't bad. Every (casual) game plays out in my head perfectly. Love it. Anybody else ever sacrifice a little (or a lot) bit of functionality for flavor in their decks?

Maybe we should have a club.


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## Kratos Aurion (Nov 7, 2008)

There was a club, but it died a while before the forum crash and no one appears to have been in the mood to restart it.

Booster drafts would probably be the best way for me to play. If, you know, there were any within 200 miles of my house. I practically live in my state's capitol and there's nowhere to play anything like TCGs, video games, etc.... this is retarded.


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## Koori Renchuu (Nov 7, 2008)

Cryssie said:


> So I've taken this up and now play (mainly booster drafts) at least once a week and I'm rated and it's awesome.
> 
> Apart from one shaky sort of game against my brother using pre-constructed theme decks, and then a run-through of the starter set tutorial game, my first real experience of Magic was a Shards of Alara sealed deck tournament, which was interesting - I imagine putting a tri-colour deck together under a time limit was not the easiest introduction I could have had to the game, but it was a lot of fun.
> 
> ...


I *ADORE* Beacon of immortality.  I've gone over three thousand life with that.  I love saprolings more though.  I am glad to see the game expand to the young!

Kratos, I'm on it!


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## Cryssie (Nov 7, 2008)

Koori Renchuu said:


> I am glad to see the game expand to the young!


DDD: What *is* it with people calling me young lately? I feel so little. ;;

Besides, if the age on your profile doesn't lie, you're a year older than me at the most. >:(

... I'll just go and join the club now.


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## Koori Renchuu (Nov 7, 2008)

Age is relative.  You are younger than I am.  In addition, you're young in the sense of the game itself.  I've stayed with it for over ten years.  I've seen it evolve and mutate, seen new mechanics go in and out of flux.


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## Storm Earth and Fire (Nov 8, 2008)

Koori Renchuu said:


> I've seen it evolve and mutate, seen new mechanics go in and out of flux.


RIP old frames.


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## Kratos Aurion (Nov 8, 2008)

No need to recreate the club for _me_, unless you have a magical teleportation device that can transport me to anywhere that actually has tournaments/other people that play so that there's a point in my picking the game up.


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## Koori Renchuu (Nov 8, 2008)

Think of it as a support group for those who can't play yet want to so horribly!


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## theinsanething (Nov 14, 2008)

I was one of those people who played back in the Day of Revised Edition, all the way up to 7th Ed, then I stopped for 8 years. Now I'm back and playing, cards are cheap online nowadays, so why not? I just lack that many people to play against in my area, there's about 3-4 people in my college that play, and my Deck dominates theirs.

I use a Black-Blue Rat Deck.

Consisting of:

*Main Deck (60)*

*Creatures (20):*
1 Patron of the Nezumi
1 Ratcatcher
1 Netherborn Phalanx
1 Marrow-Gnawer
2 Pestilence Rats
2 Crypt Rats
4 Relentless Rats
2 Nezumi Cutthroat
2 Ravenous Rats
2 Gnat Miser
2 Bog Rats

*Lands (18):*
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Subterranean Hangar
1 Sand Silos
2 Dimir Aqueduct
9 Swamps
4 Islands

*Others(22):*
1 Rats' Feast
3 Raise Dead
2 Counterspell
2 Intruder Alarm
2 Flight of Fancy
2 Vampiric Embrace
3 Death Watch
1 Sadistic Glee
3 Dark Ritual
1 Generals Kabuto
2 Dimir Signet

*Sideboard (15):*

*Creatures (11):*
1 Doomgape
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
1 Netherborn Phalanx
2 Dirty Wererat
2 Nezumi Cutthroat
2 Ravenous Rats
2 Gnat Miser

*Others (4):*

1 General's Kabuto
1 Rats' Feast
1 Counterspell
1 Soothsaying

I was thinking about using cards like Diabolic Tutor, but can anybody give me other suggestions?


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